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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28051620">friday, 11:24pm</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffygyu/pseuds/puffygyu'>puffygyu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SEVENTEEN (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>a lot of bad petnames, and they only have each other for company, broke student jeonghan, jeongcheol being stuck at an airport, mentioned junhui, seungcheol acts all cool but is in fact a nervous ball of fluff, tired businessman seungcheol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:01:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,766</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28051620</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffygyu/pseuds/puffygyu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yoon Jeonghan’s expectations for a decent friday night were considerably low. He didn’t need an exhausting club-night, overpriced drinks or something else the society regarded as appropriate for a 24-year-old to spend his time on a Friday. He was quite content with the security of his own bed or couch, lazing around to the sound of Netflix quietly playing in the background till falling asleep around 1:30 from an exhausting university week.</p><p>But this particular Friday night threw all of his expectations out of the window, kicked it in the curb and lastly set it on fire with a devilish laugh; in short, being trapped at Shenzhen Airport at 2 am in the morning was even too low of an expectation for himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>123</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>friday, 11:24pm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this has been sitting in my wip-folder for more than one year now; inspired by me getting stuck at beijing airport for seven hours for a layover.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yoon Jeonghan’s expectations for a decent friday night were considerably low. He didn’t need an exhausting club-night, overpriced drinks or something else the society regarded as appropriate for a 24-year-old to spend his time on a Friday. He was quite content with the security of his own bed or couch, lazing around to the sound of Netflix quietly playing in the background till falling asleep around 1:30 from an exhausting university week.</p><p>But this particular Friday night threw all of his expectations out of the window, kicked it in the curb and lastly set it on fire with a devilish laugh; in short, being trapped at Shenzhen Airport at 2 am in the morning was even too low of an expectation for himself.</p><p>It had all started too well. He had rewarded himself for the crazy midterm week by skipping an entire week of classes to visit Junhui in his hometown. Why the younger had gone back there despite also having a crushing workload on his back, Jeonghan couldn’t say. But with mostly anything else coming from Junhui it was better not to ask. So he had booked the cheapest flight going from Seoul to Shenzhen, spent an incredible week at Junhui’s place, before biding him farewell (till they had to meet again in Mrs. Kim’s superb uninformative class next week) and set off to his quest to get back home.</p><p>Oh, how naïve he was back then, having the unrealistic expectation of arriving back in Seoul in a few hours.</p><p>After refusing to let the passengers check-in for almost an hour the airline made the uplifting announcement of the flight having a delay of several hours, not knowing when the aircraft would actually arrive at the airport. How an airplane could accumulate a delay of hours on a route that was only four hours long was beyond Jeonghan, but he only was a communication major, so what could he know? With the airline being one of the cheapest (due to struggling notorious broke Jeonghan) they neither did provide an alternative flight, nor did they consider checking them in a hotel, because technically the airplane could arrive any minute now.</p><p>Any minute stretched into three hours to four, till Jeonghan considered to say “fuck it” and to spend his emergency money (originally intended for expensive textbooks) on another flight, just to get home and see his bed again.</p><p>But sadly, he was cheap and rather suffered on the uncomfortable benches instead of handing over his credit card.<br/>He had run out of options to entertain himself after half an hour, leading to bombarding Jisoo with messages till the other one found an excuse to put him on silent. Jeonghan sulked for five minutes, before turning to Chan; he hadn’t gotten a reply till now. Annoyed, tired and sulking even more he had tried to sleep, which had proven rather unsuccessful.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Jeonghan yawned, before stretching out his arms, earning a loud crack coming from his back. He was not getting younger, waiting around at airports should really not be on his to-do list. anymore.</p><p>He sat there for a moment, having a short out of body experience. With every moment remaining at his airport he could feel one braincell slowly dying, leaving him as a wreck that didn’t even know which day it was anymore. The flickering lights above him didn’t help his case at all either. Staying here would probably only speed up his demise. The only thing he could come up with to leave this sorry state was getting something to drink, to maybe renew his spirits. The thought grew inside his head, till his brain finally commanded his tired body to push itself off the disgustingly uncomfortable bench.</p><p>It turned out that most shops at Shenzhen airport closed too early and the only thing that was sold in bulks was water. Jeonghan wanted to laugh, he truly had exhausted all his luck for this year. He couldn’t survive on water alone even if he lowered his standards to the floor, he needed at least some sort of soft drink to push some sickly-sweet adrenaline through his veins. Somewhere this damned airport must have a vending machine, on which Jeonghan could dump his last yuan.</p><p>Somewhere turned out to be a walk of ten minutes around two corners and in front of some artsy art-exhibition looking like the ugly flooring had served for its inspiration.<br/>To his initial dismay he wasn’t the only one strolling around the halls for a glimpse of something to drink.</p><p>In front of the obnoxious yellow painted vending machine was standing a man in a slightly crumbled suit, almost drilling his finger through the machine knobs with every stab he gave them.</p><p>He exactly irradiated the kind of energy Jeonghan felt deep in his chest. A smile curled around his face when the other one didn’t even notice him but continued to get gradually angrier at the machine.</p><p>“Maybe you should try to punch it.”</p><p>He definitely got the attention with those words, the guy turning around and oh god the world truly hated him. Wearing his crinkly suit, the guy wore an even crinklier and more tired expression. But this failed to hide his attractiveness, black hair hanging down to his forehead, soft-looking eyes and a very prominent jawline. And were those several piercings on his ear?</p><p>“Yeah, I already tried that, sadly didn’t work.”<br/>Even his words sounded tired and exhausted.</p><p>“How did you know I am Korean?”<br/>Jeonghan was amused by the casualness his English question had been answered in Korean. At least it saved him the time and braincells to jungle through an awkward conversation in a tongue he didn’t really mastered (yet).</p><p>This made the guy laugh and it may also skyrocket to the most pleasing sounds Jeonghan had heard in his life (besides the future announcement of the airplane finally arriving).<br/>“Your accent and looks. Be long enough away from home and you learn to decipher your fellow Koreans.”</p><p>Jeonghan decided to not dip his toes into the “been too long away from home” topic. That guy may be cute but there were enough cute guys out there very eager to dump their life story on you the minute you showed interest (Jeonghan had made enough unfortunate experiences). Instead he pointed at the machine.<br/>“So, what’s the plan?”</p><p>As a response, Mr. Crinkly-Suit ran his fingers through his hair, looking even more dishevelled as a result.<br/>“I already tried the sweet talk and almost wrestled with it, so I guess the next step is defeat?”</p><p>That made Jeonghan laugh, taking a step closer himself, peering intensely at the disappointment in front of him, as if he could scare it into baring its content open for the two. When this didn’t trigger a response, he gave it an experimental stab with his finger; no result came from it either.<br/>“Well, Watson, my conclusion is sadly also to call defeat here, the enemy has been too overpowering.”</p><p>This drew out a crooked smile from Suit-Man.<br/>“So, you think I have to say goodbye to the money I dumped into it?”</p><p>Jeonghan gave his best to present a sorrowful look.<br/>“There is no hope left only to let go and move on.”</p><p>This time, Mr. Crinkly-Suit let out a full-blown laugh and holy shit, Jeonghan may have ascended, this was surely the sounds of heaven ringing. He was still recovering from the near-god experience when the guy sighed and turned to a bag leaning forgotten on the wall.<br/>“I guess water it is then.”, he murmured, heaving up said item.</p><p>“I saw a lot of it in the store right across the toilet.”<br/>“At least we don’t have to walk far then if we drink too much of it.”</p><p>Jeonghan laughed. He liked this guy already.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They somewhat naturally walked side by side, having silently come to the agreement that they were now embarking together on the quest, four eyes seeing more than two. And truthfully Jeonghan didn’t want to go back to his lonely seat on the uncomfortable metal bench just now; Suit-Man was a way better companion than his suitcase had been.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The walk back definitely felt shorter with the presence of the other entertaining each other. Jeonghan quickly stopped to retrieve his suitcase, before they walked up to the store buying so much water to keep them alive in a drought. After their successful purchase they sat down at a tiny seating area which had been modelled to resemble a pavilion. This was the moment the tired looking Korean decided to finally disclose his name.</p><p>“I’m Choi Seungcheol by the way.”<br/>“Yoon Jeonghan.”</p><p>For one moment silence took over, Jeonghan occupied with trying to open his bottle, till Seungcheol showed pity, softly wrestling the bottle out of his hand, opening it up for him. To mask his embarrassment Jeonghan started talking.<br/>“Are you also heading for Seoul in that disaster of an airplane?”</p><p>Seungcheol snapped open his own water bottle and gulped down half of it before answering.<br/>“Yeah, this should have been only a quick layover but now I am still stuck here without my suitcase.”</p><p>Jeonghan decided that now would be the best time to decide to say, fuck it, I am going to listen to that lifestory.<br/>“Business-trip?”</p><p>Seungcheol gave him a surprised look, before letting his gaze wander down his clothes.<br/>“Guess the suit gave me away?”</p><p>“And the layover, no one else travels in a suit.”</p><p>Seungcheol laughed again, this time quieter, and Jeonghan was glad he was the only one getting to enjoy the sound.</p><p>“I rather would not too, but my suitcase is stuck somewhere and so am I in that fashion choice.”</p><p>He pointed to Jeonghan with his jaw.<br/>“And you? I guess no business trip then?”</p><p>Jeonghan shook his head, trying to keep his head high, while his own story lacked a lot more impact than “business trip”.<br/>“No, just a quick vacation at a friend’s house, before returning to uni-depression.”</p><p>Seungcheol made a small “ah”, before emptying his water bottle completely and screwing it shut.<br/>“I never actually saw the city here; did you like it?”</p><p>Jeonghan launched into a description of the things he had seen and eaten in the city with tourist guide Junhui, who had introduced him to a lot of insider tips. His verdict in the end was, indeed, he had liked the city.</p><p>Seungcheol was quite the good listener; or at least he pretended to be one. He even laughed at the part where Jeonghan had gotten lost in the Shenzhen public transport system, almost taking the bus bound for Hong Kong.</p><p>“Sounds like I have to come back one day. Even though I feel like I have been traumatized from this airport alone.”<br/>“So, you normally don’t waste your time at airports?”</p><p>The second bottle of water was opened, Seungcheol taking a sip out of it, taking his time to answer the question.<br/>“Actually, half of my trips consist of being stuck at airports.”</p><p>Jeonghan wrinkled his nose.<br/>“The annotation business-trip suddenly lost all its appeal to me.”</p><p>Seungcheol raised an amusement eyebrow at Jeonghan’s antics<br/>“The amount of time I lost waiting at airports is unmeasurable. But normally the vending machines give me a better treatment than here.”</p><p>He grabbed the empty bottle, turned his body and, with a concentrated frown, aimed at a bin a few meters away. With the smoothness of a dart player throwing his dart, the businessman launched his plastic bottle, hitting bulls’ eye and the bottle disappearing into the trash can. A triumphant expression took over his face, sarcastically bowing to a clapping Jeonghan. It seemed like their conversation about the displeasures of business-trips had concluded, but Seungcheol surprised him once again.</p><p>“I am the youngest one in the company, so they rather send me around the globe instead of going on their own and experiencing the discomfort of being stuck in a plane for ten hours with having to speak another language. At least the food is often good and the hotels never too shabby.”</p><p><br/>But Jeonghan got relieved of any statement to the last somewhat frustrated sounding sentences due to a loud announcement blaring through the airport of a certain airplane being ready for boarding in twenty minutes.</p><p>“I didn’t think I would see that day.”, Jeonghan mumbled, as they scrambled to get their spars belongings. Seungcheol heard it anyways and a small laugh escaped him.<br/>“Isn’t the airport to your liking?”</p><p>Jeonghan let out an unattractive snort and shrugged with his shoulders, while grabbing the handle of his suitcase.<br/>“I would like more flying home and less uncomfortable benches.”</p><p>A mischievous grin appeared on the other’s face, making him seem a lot younger than he appeared before with his tired demeanour. Jeonghan quickly came to the conclusion that he actually liked that very much.</p><p><br/>“Agreed on that.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The toilet right across their position was blessed with a short visit by them, both unanimously voting for rather not wanting to see the one in the plane.</p><p><br/>Jeonghan was startled for a moment when he saw his face in the mirror, looking nothing short like participating in a zombie-movie. He hoped it was the effect of the shitty lightning and not the reality. Otherwise he felt sorry for Seungcheol. But there was nothing on the face of the other one when he joined Jeonghan at the sink suggesting he found out about Jeonghan’s secret identity. He was even lucky enough to catch the glimpse of one of Seungcheol’s addicting smiles.</p><p>The gate was hard to miss with all the people lining up, afraid of getting left behind by the pilot. This time Jeonghan actually felt sympathy – he wouldn’t put it behind the pilot to just leave without his passengers.</p><p>He was in the middle of figuring out if he could conserve energy with sitting down, when he felt a soft tug on his jacket.<br/>“I think I have to go first.”</p><p>Seungcheol pointed with a sheepish smile to the flashing lights of “priority boarding”, where exactly no one had queued up.<br/><em>Oh shit, here comes business-treatment.</em></p><p>Jeonghan gave his best not to show his surprise, only flashing the hint of a smile. While he was ready to bid farewell to his handsome airport-companion, when Seungcheol decided he couldn’t just leave like this.</p><p>“Maybe see you in Seoul again?”<br/>If Jeonghan put one and one together through his in-depth life-experience he would say this almost was a <em>“please, let’s see each other again back home, I want to spend more time with you.”.</em></p><p>The smile on Jeonghan’s face was now a lot more generous.<br/>“Yes, of course.”</p><p>Seungcheol returned the smile, boldly stepping out of the line and handing over his passport and ticket to the assistant at the priority counter.</p><p><br/>Only after some time that his back had disappeared in the long tunnel leading up to the airplane (with several eyes following him), they decided to open the boarding to the mere peasants they were.<br/>Jeonghan found himself squished between some chatty ajummas, not wanting more than to crash down on his seat and drift off to sleep for the next several hours.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The stewardess bowed as he stepped into the plane, but her eyes told him that she wanted to be somewhere else, presumably far away from this crowd of people. How relatable. He automatically ducked his head as he continued his walk of shame through the business to the economy class. He still caught a glimpse of a mob of dark hair in the middle corner, but he was washed away with the flow before he could take any action.</p><p>In the end he only managed to sleep a solid 40 minutes, with a dopey grin taking up too much space in his head. Only then he realized Seungcheol had neither offered him his number nor any other means of contact to meet in Seoul again</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It was three in the morning when the plane finally landed on Incheon Airport. At least he made it back to Seoul, Jeonghan told himself, when annoyance rippled through his body upon seeing all the people rise from their seats. He had reached the point where the mere presence of people annoyed him and he needed more sleep to recharge (Joshua called this one of his moods).</p><p>He could only hold himself back so often from clicking his tongue every time someone decided to cross his way, squeeze himself around him or just cut his route off.</p><p><br/>He somehow made it to immigration, the guy behind the desk only giving him and the passport a quick glance and opening the gates, welcoming him back to Korea.</p><p>The luggage claiming area was vast of any people, their airplane probably the last one scheduled, with all the staff members looking like they wanted to go home already.<br/>Jeonghan positioned himself in the second row of people, rather having to wait till his grey suitcase would be thrown on the belt instead of wrestling with the people in front of him.</p><p> </p><p>He was in the middle of heaving down said suitcase (he shouldn’t have bought that many souvenirs), when a familiar voice reached his ears.<br/>“Fancy seeing you here.”</p><p><br/>“Did you mean with: see you in Seoul, see you at the conveyer belt?”</p><p>Seungcheol looked a lot more tired now, his eyebags ever so prominent (even though Jeonghan found that cute, maybe he was screwed). He seemed like a person that had been forced out of a deep slumber and still carrying around the grumpiness coming with it. Despite this, his voice was still soft as it has ever been. Especially when he started to laugh that full laugh again, that Jeonghan secretly had hoped to hear again.</p><p>“No actually not, but things seem to work out that way.”<br/>Seungcheol had a new companion now, a silver hardcover suitcase, with, somewhat unfittingly, a Ryan luggage tag on its side.<br/>Cute.</p><p>“At least we made it to the city without any hitches, congrats to us.”<br/>Jeonghan pulled out the handle of his suitcase, which was finally standing back on the floor<br/>.<br/>“Even though my motivation to wait for almost one hour for that next bus to arrive are practically none.”<br/>He could hear himself rambling on, sounding annoyed by the perspective of needing almost two hours home from the airport.</p><p>Seungcheol came to the rescue again.<br/>“We could maybe share a taxi if you want to?”</p><p>For one second Jeonghan’s brain produced the thought if it was that smart to follow a (basically still) complete stranger, but his mouth decided otherwise.<br/>“Yeah sure, sounds like a deal.”<br/>“Cool.”</p><p>Seungcheol started fiddling with his phone, starting to walk forward, nonetheless. Jeonghan right by his side trying not to show his annoyance of his suitcase bumping against his legs here and there; he truly didn’t want to scare Seungcheol away just now. The arrival hall was eerily empty, just two security guards giving them some suspicious looks when they made their way to the exit on the lower level.</p><p> </p><p>The Seoul night was not too cold, but a nasty wind blew and Jeonghan retreated back in his coat to get at least some kind of protection.<br/>“I’m sorry, the app tells me it is almost here.”</p><p>Seungcheol offered his best smile that made Jeonghan almost instantly feel much warmer than before.<br/>“It’s fine. Knowing that I will be home in less than an hour warms me up enough from the inside.”</p><p>Seungcheol didn’t have an answer for that, only a soft smile, bringing them to wait in silence. Jeonghan was debating if he should be the one making the first step, being in the best situation to casually ask about the number of the other one, when a taxi appeared and stopped in front of them.<br/>Ah, Jeonghan’s life and its perfect timing.</p><p>They strolled to the trunk and Seungcheol naturally reached for Jeonghan’s suitcase, heaving it inside without a word of complain, before his silver suitcase also found its way inside. Jeonghan slipped besides Seungcheol on the rear bank, no one of them having made claims for the passenger seat. He caught himself remembering Seungcheol’s address like the creep he was as the taxi driver put it down in his navigation app, coming to the agreement that dropping off Jeonghan first was the way to go.</p><p>They fell into comfortable silence, only the radio program played by the driver serving as the background noise, while they were navigated through the half-empty streets of Seoul.</p><p><br/>Jeonghan started slipping into and out of conscious thanks to the soft movements of the car, only returning back to reality, when his named was called out quietly.</p><p>Groggily he realized that the car had stopped.</p><p>He automatically reached for his pocket to get out his cash, but Seungcheol quickly intercepted, shaking his head.<br/>“No need to, I will put that on my company’s bills.”</p><p>Jeonghan frowned, ready to fight back because no, he surely wasn’t freeloading on someone, no matter how broke he was; he still had his pride. But Seungcheol had other plans.<br/>“But there may be something else you could give me as a return. Something I was too nervous to ask before.”</p><p>Seungcheol’s face was only half-lit in the crappy car light, but the shy smile was hard to miss.<br/>“Mind giving me your number?”</p><p>That shook Jeonghan completely out of his drowsiness; did Mr. Loaded-Businessman finally asked for his number? How Seungcheol could have been nervous was beyond him, but he was so ready to learn some more new facts about the other.</p><p>“How about you rather give me yours and I will contact you?”<br/>With those words Jeonghan pulled out his phone, unlocking it and pulling up the new contact tab.</p><p>“You better contact me, or I will have to call the aircraft company again and convince them to make a breach of privacy.”<br/>Jeonghan watched intently with Seungcheol typing in his phone number with utmost care, contrary to his confident sounding words as if it was just a façade for the plea behind it: <em>please contact me, I already mustered up all my courage to ask.</em></p><p>“Don’t worry, I keep my words.”<br/>“I may be a little bit smitten.”, Seungcheol replied, handing back Jeonghan’s phone, open with the tab “Cheol” and a new number.</p><p>Jeonghan started to grin.<br/>“I am sure we can work that out, Mr. Smitten.”</p><p> </p><p>It only took Jeonghan ten minutes after arriving in his flat to start a new chat with Seungcheol.</p>
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